Waiting. It’s an inevitable aspect of human life and it’s not something that most of us enjoy.

We wait in lines, we wait while our gas tank fills, at traffic lights, in doctor’s offices, to be served at our favorites restaurant, and while waiting to pick up our kids.  Statisticians have estimated that in a lifetime of 70 years, the average person spends at least three years waiting.

THREE YEARS!

But we can use these “down times” to be productive. Waiting doesn’t have to mean wasting time. You can manage your time better by conducting tasks that will assist you in business or things that can save you time at later date.

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Of all the mascots I would expect a high-end luxury hotel to have, the lowly mallard duck is certainly not one of them. And yet, that was what greeted me when I stepped into the Peabody Orlando Hotel.

There is an actual story behind the ducks (which is printed on the napkins) but the reality is the story is less interesting than how the hotel has built a brand around ducks.

First, you have the “March of the Ducks” — at 11 am the ducks “march” (or more accurately waddle) on a red carpet to spend the day in a luxurious fountain. This fountain is located in the middle of the hotel and is actually quite a nice place to get a little work done or enjoy a coffee and cupcake (while watching the ducks splash around). At 5 pm they then “march” (waddle) back to their Duck Palace to enjoy a duck dinner and a “quiet evening” together.

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When you are just starting out, there can be a lot of fear about where money is going to come from and how you’ll find clients. I understand this because back in the beginning, I lived through it too. So I went back and documented everything I did that worked and created the Quick Start Guide.

One of the gems in that start up program is to write a congratulatory card to yourself about how much money you want to earn each month, the number of clients you need and how you’ll feel when this happens.

I recommend crafting a few positive statements about what you want to happen, but make sure you write everything in present tense so it sounds like you are living it right now. Then type this on your computer in a font that looks script-like, as if it’s someone else’s handwriting. Don’t skip this step because it does make a difference to receive a card that’s not in your own handwriting. Then paste it in a card, put it in an envelope, address it to yourself and mail it.

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In the chapter entitled: How to Fast-Track to Get your Career on Track, I discuss the concept of “Build and Leap” for career success.

Here is the except from my book:

“The cornerstone of the “Taking It to a Whole New Level” concept for career acceleration is to move from a ‘climb the ladder’ mentality to a “Build and Leap” mentality.

‘Build and Leap’ is a simple process whereby you build a career ramp (Career Transformation Plan), and then you begin executing your intentions at a faster pace so that you can leap to greater career achievements. Now contrast this process with climbing a very tiresome ladder, one rung at a time. “Build and Leap” is the best way to fast-track to get your career on track.”

The video below will give you 5 of my best tips for fast-tracking your career.

If you want more information about “Build and Leap”, you can order my new book: Fit, Fine & Fabulous in Career, Business & Life (Amazon best seller). Click here to purchase the book and receive $2,000 worth of bonus gifts that will catapult your career or business.

Does your business offer store credit?

Last weekend I went shopping for a Mother’s Day gift for my girlfriend with her 6 year old son. My intention was to get in and out in under 5 minutes. That didn’t happen. It was about 10 minutes! I would have been out sooner except I had to find my girlfriend’s son hiding under a table listening to Kanye West on my iPhone! So cute!

As I was rushing out the door the saleslady asked me if I wanted a store credit. That stopped me in my tracks. Why? Who doesn’t love getting a deal? Right?

Check out the store’s discount strategy. They give you store credit for 10% of your current purchase that you can use on your next visit, but it expires in 30 days. Clever! They hand write the amount of money on the coupon and for some reason it just seems more real. How could I throw away $8.73 worth of store credit? I stuck it in my wallet just in case. In the back of my mind I knew I only had 30 days to use it.

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Focus is a (if not the) key to your productivity; and finding focus when you are working online can be a huge challenge!

The online world is teeming with information, interactions, and fascinating distractions.  Indeed, many believe that our attention spans are diminished by the rapid changes in how we gather information – and the sheer volume of what we are sifting through!  So, in your online work, do you find yourself challenged to maintain your focus?

Focus:  Not a one-size-fits-all proposition …

I believe that finding focus, for each of us, varies from task to task.  Optimizing your efficiency when posting on social networking sites involves a different kind of thinking (and focus) than does writing a blog post or article, or creating an info-product.

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I recently attended my friend and colleague’s Monica Shah’s Money 2.0 event, and this was one of the main themes. It is a topic I often coach my clients around, and I thought it was important to create a video about because I see a lot of confusion going on around it!

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There’s nothing worse than missing a client appointment. It doesn’t matter if it’s because you forgot to schedule it, your Virtual Assistant missed the request, or another reason; your business won’t see the excuse as a good thing and it’ll be more damaging than you may imagine. You’re busy and that means you must write things down. No matter how good your memory is, it’s not a good idea to try to do everything on your own.

There are many ways to handle managing your time and some of them will even automate the process for you. You can use Google calendar to manage your client meetings, but that’s not automated, and when you run a business you need to automate as much as possible. When things are automated, you’ll have more time to work the parts of your business that require you to work them.

When you’re considering scheduling tools that are automated and will help you manage your business, you need to consider vCita. This scheduling tool gives you the coding you need to quickly and easily add it to your site so you have the ability to immediately begin adding client appointments to your calendar. It’s automated, so you don’t have to do any scheduling yourself.

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In part 1 of For Business Owners: The Things that Equate to More Money, I discussed the crucial things that you should have in writing.

I have found that most business owners put their family, friends, health and everything else that matters on the back burner and latter they end up regretting some of their choices.

When you have a well-documented Strategic Success Plan (chapter 4 of my book) you will be able to eliminate some of those regrets and mistakes just by spending a little time planning.

Which one do you think most people regret the most: the things they’ve done or the things they never did?

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As entrepreneurs, we move quickly in business. We make decisions more quickly than most. We are spontaneous and we have the technology at our fingertips to assist us even further.

But there are times in life and business, when we need to take a step back, slow down and think it through more carefully than usual, especially during those rare times of national, even global crisis. For us as a company, that has happened twice in late 2012 with two tragedies that hit very close to home here in Connecticut, where Client Attraction.com is headquartered.

Six new guidelines to doing business with dignity, integrity and respect during times of tragedy.

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